Jean-Jacques Burnel has been The Stranglers’ bass guitarist for almost half a century. Formed in 1974, the band found themselves at the forefront of the UK punk explosion, enjoying a brace of top-five albums in 1977 alone (a year that also saw Shidokan Karate Black Belt JJ narrowly sidestep conscription into the French army and appear as a nude centrefold in the Christmas NME). “It’s cruel,” he says of his Soundtrack experience “It’s like asking: ‘Who’s your favourite child?’”
THE FIRST MUSIC I REMEMBER HEARING
The first record I everby Millie, but my parents also had a tape recorder and I managed to record The Yardbirds’ off the radio. Now, I live in France, about fifteen minutes from Jim McCarty, the Yardbirds’ drummer, and we’ve got a blues band. We play John Mayall and Muddy Waters stuff in little pubs and bars for the sheer joy. He’s eighty years old and still plays like a god.
